Dear Sweet Caroline,

Happy 18 months to you today! As I'm thinking back to a year ago, you were six months old! I am particularly thinking back to a picture that showed you in your carseat smiling so big on your six month birthday! We carried you everywhere in your carseat and you loved sleeping in it. You always looked so cute sleeping!

Today you are a big girl and doing so many big girl things! You really like playing with your toys, especially your chatter box telephone. You like answering "HELLO" and pretend playing phone with daddy. You also enjoy playing with your Choo-Choo train! You really like arranging the "little people" that ride on the top of your choo-choo train. You still love playing with your gumball machine, your baby dolls, and your puzzles! Just the other day you came into the kitchen carrying and hugging three of your "babies"! You were so precious and so excited to show me what you could do! You are too funny when you play in "your" kitchen cabinet. You love digging out all of the plastic ware and then sitting in the empty space in the cabinet. You also love closing yourself up in the cabinet and playing hide and seek or peek-a-boo! You are not afraid of the dark! Big girl! You also enjoy reading the pictures of your books! Your comments about the pages are hilarious and your laugh is contagious!

You also love your pappy, Bovey (look at you holding him so sweet as we go to Ms. Leah's), juice, bow, and shoes.

You are one happy little girl! You are most happy when we read to you or play with you! You are happy when you run and chase Kitty! Mr. Kitty really loves you because he doesn't even try to do anything to you when you pull his hair (hard) or pull on his tiny tail! You are also happy when you play with your friends!

You are not a big eater but you have your days when you eat a lot! You love eating McDonald's Happy Meals, fishsticks, mac and cheese from McAlister's, ice cream, milkshakes, tookies (cookies), bnanas (bananas), and mandarin oranges! You like to drink apple juice, milk, water (well not so much), Capri Sun and lemonade. Occasionally your Aunt Rhonda will give you some fizz! Diet Coke that is!

Some of your favorite places to go are the zoo, church, and on playdates! We love playdates! I love them as much as you! It gives the mommies a chance to chit chat and catch up and it gives you babies the chance to play, play, and play some more with each other!

You are saying so many new words, way too many to count. I stopped writing them down back in the summer! Your favorite words are Happy Da Doo (Happy Birthday) and o! My favorite words that you say are mommy and luv u (love you)!

Your personality is so much fun! I love it! You have quite the personality for a little person! You are spunky, funny, adorable, giddy, happy, sweet, delightful, and precious! I love you!

Your 18 month stats are:

Height: 33 inches 90th percentile

Weight: 23 lbs 1 oz 25th percentile

Head: 17 3/4 10th percentile

18 months ago I didn't know the joys that you'd bring into our lives! I would not trade them for anything this world could offer! You are the best gift we've ever gotten! A blessing from God! We love you and cherish every minute with you! You are ours and we are so thankful and blessed to have you as our daughter!

Love you and Happy Da Doo,

Mommy

Happy 18 month Birthday Sweet Caroline!

Getting ready for a day of play at Ms. Leah's!

September 29, 2009! Happy 6 months!

Getting ready for a day of play at Ms. Leah's!

I love to read!

My mommy couldn't wait to get me home

on my 6th month birthday so she could dress me

up in my new fall clothes!

I love my Bumbo too!

I love to sit in my rocking chair and read

my favorite book, The Wheels on the Bus!

Playing dress up on my 6th month birthday!

This is what I wore for Halloween too!

I love to play with all all of my toys!

Happy Da Doo Sweet Caroline!

Today's post is random! 

I can't believe:

That it's the 29th day of school.

That Sweet Caroline is about to be 18 months old on tomorrow.

That October is almost here.

That my 8 year old Toyota Camry needs lots of work...
to the tune of $6,000.00

That I have a niece who's a senior in high school!

That I've been teaching first grade for 8 years!

That I've been married already 4.5 years!

That I have a mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring. And is now thankfully, a survivor! YAY, MOM!

That I'm posting this pic of my cute girl but it's so cute!

Fun at Irmo's Okra Strut!

This past Saturday Caroline met Morgan Kate and Nolan at the Okra Strut! It was a blast. We ate some really good food, had a lot of fun, and got a lot of sun! I think our favorite part was loving on each other's sweet babies! 

C and MK are ready to roll!

I love this MK look!

Nolie Polie's big smile!

Nolan and his sweet mommy!

The Many Sides of Miss Caroline!

Fun sweet girl side!

 Giddy girl side!

Oh, girl side!

Run girl side!

All over girl side!

What can I get into next girl side!

Curious girl side!

Smiley sweet girl side!

What's next girl side!

Too much fun girl side!

Laughy laugh, giggle love, girl side!

C's Nanny bought her a too cute table for her

outside play time!

 I think she likes it!

Yay, baby! We can't wait to sit and play with you

at your new table! Thank you Nanny!

Our niece, Samantha, turned 8 on 8.29!

She was super excited about her

surprise pool party!

C loved being pushed around in her pool float!

Approval sign: the crinkle nose smile!

Daddy teaching C a little swimming lessons!

She loved to doggie paddle!

C and her Granddaddy Harry! I love pictures

of them looking at each other! They are full of smiles!

C had too much fun on Friday before last, 9.10.10! As part of a PTA event, we headed on over to Monkey Joe's. I was hesitant because I didn't know if she was old enough to be on the equipment. I'm glad we went! She had a blast as you can tell from these pictures!

She loved bouncing and rolling around in the bounce houses!

The slide! She wore it out I think!

This post is um way late in the posting, but as I'm looking through my camera I'm sadly realizing that a lot of my future posts will be of parties and fun events that have already occured over a month ago. Forgive me as I just had to start another school year (no excuses for this one being late).

I love attending parties that are for any member of the Hardison or Callahan families. These families are very dear to my heart and I will always treasure their friendship! As I'm writing this post I'm remembering lots of them. New Year's Eve parties, birthday parties, graduation parties, engagement parties, wedding parties etc. They are filled with fun times and memories- the kind you still talk about today- everyone of them.

So, when Heather's mom emailed and said she and Travis (Heather's husband) were giving her a surprise 30th I couldn't wait! I knew that this day would be special and eventful for her as well as for all those present. I loved seeing the "baby" and "teenage" memories that were displayed all throughout the room. It's amazing to think that someday soon (too soon) Heather and I will be displaying the same kinds of things for our daughters. I love memories especially fond ones of dear family and friends!

I know that you enjoyed your special 30th, Heather! You've been and are such a great friend. You were such a sweet friend in elementary school, a precious friend in high school, and the BEST college and roommate friend ever...I still have all of those birthday notes and messages that you left around our dorm rooms!! To add more you are now a darling mommy friend! Thanks for all the fun memories!

Surprise! Happy Birthday!

Heather and her precious one, Morgan Kate!

Raven, Me, and Heather having a lot of fun!

Continuing from Neeley's first birthday! Neeley's party was held at her family's riverhouse! It was too much fun! Babies playing especially in water is so much fun to watch!

C giving Neeley a birthday pat! Aren't they

precious!

Little girl's crinkle nose smile! Love it!

This little girl loves nothing more than to be having

fun with her daddy!

This sweet baby, Neeley, turned one on August 4th (and I'm realizing that I haven't blogged about her 1st birthday party)!  I can't wait to share more pictures of this precious one's first birthday!

Thankful and Blessed. These are the first two words that come to mind when I see this picture. On last May, we went to Lexington's annual Relay for Life at Wildcat Hollow. I've gone for years, but this past year it was very different. Extremely different for The Leviner family. I was not only there this year to help raise money and awareness for cancer, but I was also there to support my own mother's battle with breast cancer. In many years past I was so thankful that no one in my family had cancer. I always got teary eyed during the survivor's walk, during the relay, because I knew that there were many people, men and women, walking around that track that were just diagnosed with cancer, in the midst of their cancer treatments, or was a survivor. I was proud of them. I felt honored to support them. I didn't know their story or what they went through, but at least  being there I felt like I was, in some small way, making a difference.  As I cheered and clapped for these amazing people I had no idea that "it" would soon be in my family nor did I ever think that I would ever have to place a luminary in my mother's honor. But "it" did and I did. Last March 10th, I received a phone call from my mother saying that she had a letter and a phone call from her doctor stating that she'd had an abnormal mammogram.

I have to admit I was a bundle of emotions from terrified, nervous, to very scared. The first diagnosis didn't sound good at all and as we waited for the second mammogram results we were on pins and needles. From the second mammogram the doctors still were not able to tell us the stage of cancer she was in nor her treatment until after the surgery. I knew God was in control but I was still scared. My mother, all of my life, has been the positive one. I've never seen her in 30 years in a bad mood, afraid, or grumpy. During this whole process (she's now cancer free!!), there were only a few times when she felt down, and this made me even more afraid. I knew deep down that she too was afraid but in the midst of it all, her spirits were high and she knew God was in control!

My mother's cancer was detected very early, and for this I am thankful.  I will always support Relay for Life and be a team member for my school, but I look at it with totally different eyes now. I'm so thankful that Relay for Life exists to help raise cancer awareness and money for cancer research!

I love you mama! I Praise the Lord everyday for your success and survivor's story! God is good!

As you can tell from my new blog look that I'm ready for fall! I love all the things that fall brings from the many colors of the leaves, the crisp weather, apples, sweaters, hay rides, football season (didn't go to, to many in college but enjoy watching it on tv), pumpkins, Halloween, the mountains,...you get it! I know it's a little early and summer's still in session but I'm super excited about the upcoming fall.

We didn't do anything fall this weekend but we spent lots of time with one very precious little girl! We had so much fun that I really hate to see this long weekend pass. Here's some pictures of our too much fun little one and our great super fun weekend!

Having fun at the park! C loved running, climbing,

walking, and playing at the park! She's defintely

our little climber!

She liked going through the "tunnel"!

Whee!

Daddy can't wait for when I can cross these by myself!

Besides the slide and the tunnel, Caroline

loved to play in the rocks and to run!

She did just get new tennis shoes (and new bows too)!

The ZOO!

We went to the zoo today!

She was impressed that a Lorikeet landed

on her daddy, but wasn't so much when it

tried to take a closer look at her!

Mommy with her favorite girl!

Precious! I love it when my big girls smiles!

She melts my heart!

Giddy up! She wasn't so sure about this one

either! While on this elephan's back she called

out "mommy, daddy", aw!

Sweet!

Her expression when she saw the elephants!

She wasn't screaming, she was in awe!

She loved most watching the fish!

We met Sam's sister, Missi, and her two children,

Samantha, and Christian at the zoo!

We all had a lot of fun! The kids were

super excited!

After watching the animals for four hours, C

gave us a sign that she was ready to go

get lunch and go night night!